{"id":1369,"date":"2020-07-12T15:28:17","date_gmt":"2020-07-12T15:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/?p=1369"},"modified":"2025-07-15T15:26:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T14:26:33","slug":"deodands-in-case-of-death-forfeit-the-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/12\/deodands-in-case-of-death-forfeit-the-horse\/","title":{"rendered":"Deodands \u2013 in case of death, forfeit the horse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deodands, a strange ‘gift to God’<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Deodands<\/strong> \u2013 [ dee-uh<\/i>-dand ]\u00a0<\/span>noun English Law.<\/h5>\n
Animals or articles that, having been the immediate cause of the death of a human being, were forfeited to the Crown to be applied to pious uses.<\/em><\/h5>\n

I\u2019d never heard of deodands, till I chanced on the the following Cumbrian example:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

March 28 1840.<\/p>\n

Accident at the canal basin, Carlisle. On the evening of March 21, as Peter Henderson and another person were unloading a timber waggon, a piece of sycamore rolled from the waggon and knocked Henderson down, having given him a severe blow on the head. He was placed in a sitting position, but died immediately. An inquest was held the following day, before Mr Carrick, and a verdict of accidental death returned, with a deodand of one shilling on the piece of timber.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Blame the horse<\/h2>\n

The following are all tragic stories, with a slight hint of absurdity created by the forfeit imposed.<\/p>\n

June 25, 1821<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Thursday last, an inquest was held at Keswick, before Peter Hodgson, on the body of John Grave, a boy aged 14, who was killed by being thrown from horse which ran away after being bitten in the heels by a dog. The boy was thrown against the slate which forms a footbridge across a sluice near Crosthwaite Church and his skull was fractured. He died next morning. Verdict: accidental death. The horse a deodand.<\/p>\n

October 21, 1822.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The horse Richard Smith was riding was again a deodand, valued at 10 shillings, at the end of the inquest. Richard Smith, a miller from Egremont, had ridden the horse at full gallop while intoxicated. The stirrup leather broke, and he fell heavily, again fracturing his skull fatally. He left a widow and six children and one wonders how they felt at also losing the horse to the crown.<\/p>\n

August 4, 1823<\/strong><\/p>\n

Isaac Barrass, of Haggetend, near Egremont, had his son William Barrass, six, and a young nephew up on his horse with him at Cold Fell races. Someone gave Isaac Barrass a letter, and he opened it. This startled the horse, which threw the three of them, then came down heavily on poor young William. A doctor happened to be at hand \u2013 for all the use that was. His idea of first aid was to try the bleed the child.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But alas! It was in vain; the vital spark was extinguished for ever; he lived about 20 minutes after the accident.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Inquest verdict: accidental death. Deodand upon the horse, 5 shillings.<\/p>\n

A horrid deed<\/h2>\n

It was another animal \u2018in the dock\u2019 in November that year, after the bruised and battered body of \u2018a woman of the name of Myers,\u2019 aged 76, was found in a field at Roosecote, Low Furness. It was quickly deduced that the \u2018perpetrator of the horrid deed\u2019 was a ram. At the inquest, a deodand of five shillings was laid upon \u2018the fleecy murderer\u2019.<\/p>\n

James Wilson, 80, was known around Kendal as \u2018the spotted cow\u2019, because while he always carried a fiddle with him, it was the only song he could sing and play. In late October 1825, being somewhat deaf, he didn\u2019t hear shouts to get out of the way of a carriage and four. The outrider tried to push him to safety, but James Wilson fell and the rear wheel of the carriage went over his neck. He died four days later. The owner of the carriage had left a servant to tend to him \u2013 and bury him if he died.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Inquest verdict: accidental death. With a deodand of one shilling on the wheel.<\/p>\n

It was the mail coach that ran over and killed four-year-old Mary Harrison in Keswick, in July 1826. The coroner, at the behest of the inquest jury, told the guard if another accident happened it would be treated as manslaughter (if he hadn\u2019t blown his horn). Verdict: accidental death. Deodant of the fore wheel, valued at 5 shillings.<\/p>\n

And so they continue. Inanimate objects all \u2018punished\u2019 for causing death<\/b><\/h4>\n

October 9,1833. When the Trafalgar entered Maryport harbour, she struck first the jetty, then a hawser, which snapped. One end of the rope rebounded towards another boat, striking three men. One died instantly, a second died in minutes. A third, John Barnes, was seriously injured. Those killed were Edward Southwell, 51, and John Dockray, 67. The inquest recorded verdicts of accidental death and \u2018no blame attaches to anyone\u2019. With a deodand on the rope.<\/p>\n

Flawed and no use to victims<\/h2>\n

A year later, the Cumberland Pacquet, and Ware’s Whitehaven Advertiser<\/em> pointed out a flaw in the system. Deodands from inquests had to be forwarded to an office in London. Which in some cases cost more than the sums raised. An example being Hereford, where the deodands of a recent period had amounted to just one shilling \u2013 and forwarding them to London had cost the city ten guineas.<\/p>\n

They continued, though. And behind each shilling levied on an animal or inanimate object, there was personal tragedy. James Hewitt, a Brampton carrier, was fatally injured at the canal basin in Carlisle in June 1836, when a machine used for loading timber fell on him. \u2018A quiet and industrious man,\u2019 he left a wife and ten children.<\/p>\n

They, of course, wouldn\u2019t have got anything from the levy on the machine. Terence McGrady was also killed at the canal basin, in October 1837, struck by a two-ton log. He bore \u2018a most excellent character\u2019 and left a widow and three young children nearly destitute. They\u2019d not have seen a penny of the \u2018nominal deodand,\u2019 but the jury and coroner made a subscription to Mrs McGrady and her family.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Deodands fall from favour<\/h2>\n

Deodands may have continued until 1846, but in December 1838, the Pacquet<\/em> \u2013 and the Carlisle Journal<\/em> \u2013 united in making it very clear that in their view, they were an anachronism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The word deodand signifies \u2018thing given to God Almighty\u2019. Our law upon this subject is extremely barbarous well as impious. The deodand was of Catholic origin, and the priests made, or pretended to make, the offering to God, for repose of the soul of a person killed.<\/p>\n

If a person falls from any part of a cart not in motion, such, for instance, as the wheel, the part alone from which he falls is given to God. But if the cart be in motion, the whole of it, as well as everything in it and about it, is forfeited to the Deity.<\/p>\n

Deodands are not given for accidents happening at sea. Not that the law does not suppose God not to have been present at the death, or not be entitled to the perquisite, but because the jurisdiction of the Court of Queen\u2019s Bench does not extend by the common law to the high seas\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They continue: “An intelligent correspondent from a manfacturing town writes to us that in the last fifty years he has seen given to God:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n